


On Nessus

by Zexeos



Series: Phoenix Rising [2]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Budding Love, F/M, Suicidal Thoughts, The Red War (Destiny), separated from the group, stay alive for me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-09 22:08:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18925972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zexeos/pseuds/Zexeos
Summary: Cayde-6 and titan Cass end up on Nessus, stranded from the rest of their firesquad. Alone in a cave while a storm rages on, can they keep their romantic feelings for each other a secret?





	On Nessus

**Author's Note:**

> So for some context, Cayde and Cass have been close friends for a few years now. This takes place during the Red War, where you free Cayde on Nessus. Cass' other firesquad members, Quill (warlock) and Syd (hunter) have been separated from them while fighting the Vex. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!!

The robotic Vex were closing in, and Cass felt a shiver of fear in her heart for her exo friend. They seemed oddly fixated on him - always crowding around him, only to be quickly dispatched by the smug, robotic gunslinger.

“That’s 32,” he proudly declared, making Cass roll her eyes as she fired away with her red hand canon,  _ From Ashes,  _ into the white cores of the Vex grunts.

“28 for me,” Cass grunted as she continued to fire, occasionally rolling out of the way of fire from the golden robots. 

“Fallin’ behind!” Cayde yelled as he leapt into the air and continued to fire with  _ Ace of Spades.  _  Narrowing her eyes, Cass let out a grunt as she felt her shields take a hit. Ducking behind a rock to allow them to recover, she peeked out from over the large boulder to assess the enemy. 

“Cayde! There’s too many of them!” Her exclamation was accented by a large red beam shooting close to Cayde as he continued to swagger and jump around -- a Harpy, was it? Cass could never remember the names. The floating construct fired another beam, and Cayde danced of its way effortlessly. 

The sea of yellow mechs seemed to be endless as the continued to pour out of the caves and over the red and green hillsides. “Cayde! Come on!” She yelled to him. “Fall back!”

Cayde looked back at her and gave the best lopsided grin he could with a robotic face. “Fine! Come on then!” He began to sprint towards Cass’ hiding spot, materializing his sparrow out of engram and whooshing by her.

Cass rushed after him, materializing her own sparrow speeder and zoomed off in the direction that Cayde went. “We’ve got to find somewhere to hide and regroup! Have you heard anything from Quill and Syd yet?” Cass called over her short-range communicator that was in her helmet. 

“Nothing yet, but they’ll be fine without us for a while,” Cayde affirmed as Cass finally caught up to him. They cruised over the red, green, and grey landscape of Nessus, jumping over radiolaria streams and ramping off the occasional boulder if they could. 

After a few minutes of silence, Cass finally asked “What’s wrong?”

“Huh?” Cayde slowed down on his sparrow a bit, the wind blowing back his hood to reveal his full head.

“You’re not talking much,” Cass said, pulling up beside him. “Which is unusual for you.”

Cayde looked forward and let out a robotic sigh. “I just have a lot on my mind. But don’t worry about me!” He looked at her with a grin and a squint of his bright blue lights that represented his eyes. “Look, Cass, it’s a lot of shit that you can’t get involved with, alright?”

Cass looked forward as well, her eyes narrowed behind the visor of her helmet. Her teeth gritted, but she didn’t respond to his statement. “We need to find some shelter,” she said looking up. Dark clouds were gathering above them, with the occasional arc of lightning and clap of thunder making its appearance. 

“What, no kisses in the rain? And I thought you loved romance,” Cayde teased as he sped up on his sparrow.

“I have no interest in catching a cold,” Cass declared as she tried to keep up with Cayde’s faster speeder bike. “Or getting wet, for that matter.”

“Oh, I can change that,” Cayde said smugly, even though he kept his eyes forward and seemingly focused on driving.

“CAYDE!” Cass exclaimed before flooring on the gas and pushing her sparrow right into Cayde’s, making a terrible metallic grinding sound and pushing Cayde off course. 

“Woah, down girl!” he laughed. “Watch the paint,” he said as he leveled out. 

“Cayde, I swear to the Traveler-” Cass started her insult, but paused. “There!” she yelled, pointing to a cave that had just entered the field of view, at the base of a large cliff. The entrance was wide and dark, and Cass hoped no Vex had taken up residence in it.

 

* * *

 

The light of the fire cast an orange glow on everything in the cave, and it helped stave off the cold that was caused by the torrential downpour that was going on outside. Cass was stripping down to her undersuit, taking off her heavy armor piece by piece, starting with her pauldrons. 

“So…” she started as she pulled off the armor pieces, quickly undoing the magnetic bond that kept them in place on her undersuit. “Why are you here, Cayde? Why aren’t you on Titan with Zavala?”

“Ah, well, Big Blue is gonna be fine without me. Ikora too - she’s somewhere, I’m sure,” Cayde said as he lounged on his bedroll, his arms behind his head. 

Cass set her armor plating next to her helmet, ready to put it on in a moment’s notice if the Vex found their hiding spot. 

“Cayde, be real with me.” Cass pulled off her breastplate, the last of her armor, and sat it down with a metallic thunk with the rest of her bright red armor. “Why were you messing with a Vex teleporter?”

Cayde sighed and looked at her with a solemn face. “Well, the plan was simple. Use the teleporter to get onto Ghaul’s ship, and then I put a bullet between his eyes.”

Cass paused, looking at Cayde with wide eyes and upturned brows. Her full lips were in a frown. “A suicide mission, then.”

“What? Psssh, no.” Cayde waved a gloved hand towards her dismissively. 

“Cayde, I’m being serious! Why would you try something like that? You’d die before you could ever get close to Ghaul without your Light…”

“Well, with that attitude, maybe. I like to think that I can do anything, and the possibilities are endless.” He rolled over on his bedroll, putting his back towards Cass.

“You were gonna leave the Vanguard. Zavala, Ikora… Me…” The last word seemed to choke out of Cass, and she looked down, her hands clenched into fists. The silence filled the air, pressing down on the two of them with a weight so crushing she thought she was going to die under it. 

“It would be better that way,” Cayde finally declared. 

Cass blinked, her blood running cold. “W-what? Are you out of your mind?” she asked in a breathless whisper, her voice barely able to be picked up over the roar of the rain. Thunder crashed in the sky, and for a second the cave was filled with illumination. 

“Well, it’s true,” Cayde declared. “I mean, this is my first chance to actually…”

Cass stomped over to Cayde and practically ripped him from his bedroll, lifting his robotic body with her enhanced guardian strength. She stared into his blue eyes for what felt like an eternity, and Cayde didn’t even breathe. Not that he needed to - it was reflex for him, something that helped keep him sane. Her face was an inch away from his, and her hard glare seemed to bore into his very soul.

"Cayde,” she said, sitting him down slowly. “I’m… so sorry,” she said, her eyes now soft and wet. She stepped forward and quickly embraced him, squeezing him tightly.  _ If I keep holding onto him, he can’t go anywhere,  _ her heart told her. The hug wasn’t reciprocated for a second, as Cayde struggled to process what was happening. Slowly, he brought his arms up and wrapped them around the woman. 

“Please, don’t leave me. I need you,” Cass breathed. 

For once, Cayde didn’t have anything to say. How could he possibly respond to that? There were no words to describe how he was feeling. “Conflicted” would be a good start though. 

“Cass…” he said softly, looking down at her. “You really want me to stay?”

“I won’t ask you to,” she whispered, as if a loud voice might break the moment. “I know you want to be with Sasha and Ace, but… Don’t forget, there are people here who need you too.” 

Cayde reached up with a gloved hand and brushed some hair out of Cass’ face. It was limp and wet from where they got caught in the first of the rainstorm. Her brilliant lapis eyes looked up at him, and Cayde felt something stir inside of his chassis. Something bigger than just himself. It was familiar, in an aching way - he couldn’t put a name to the feeling, but he  _ had _ felt it before, he was sure of it. 

He  _ wanted _ to kiss her. To wrap her up in his arms and love her until the end of time. To hear her voice for eternity, to wake up every morning and have her calm him down from his nightmares. Someone to laugh with, to play with, and to one day die with - if they were lucky. Death was an old friend to Cayde, and her embrace was the sweetest of all, although he could only taste it for a few seconds at a time. But  _ life _ with Cass… Now that held promise. 

Cass looked down, breaking their eye contact. “I understand if you can’t do this,” she trailed off, stepping back from him. “I mean, I know I’ll never replace her - and if you never want something like that again, I… understand.”

Cayde blinked, closing the gap between them once more and gripping her forearms. “Cass, damnit. I’ve never wanted anything so badly in my entire life.” His eyes were wide and his tone desperate. 

“But why me though?” she asked. “I don’t, am not…”

“You’re not  _ what, _ Cass?” Cayde demanded.

“I just can’t wrap my head around why you would pick me when you could literally have any girl in the Tower,” she said, a pout on her full lips.

“Cassie, I won’t lie to you - I’ve had my share of girls in the Tower. But none of them were you. None of them ever will be. You’re the only person I’ve ever come across that’s made me feel truly  _ alive _ . Made me want to live again.” Cayde looked away for a second, shaking his head. He released Cass, stepping back and shifting his weight to one hip. “But… if my animal magnetism is too much for you, I understand. It must be intimidating to be in the presence of a man such as myself.” 

Cass crashed into him, her arms wrapped around him tightly and her lips pressed against his faceplate as they both fell onto her bedroll. Pulling her face away from him, she whispered “Shut the fuck up.”

Cayde let out a laugh, leaning his head back. “So, that’s it then? All it takes is a bit of teasing and flattery, and then the mighty Cassandra Kiddik suddenly can’t control herself?”

Cass leaned in and nipped at his neck, knowing that the pressure sensors there would register the action. “Only for you,” she teased, shifting her legs and hips so that she was straddling him. “As fun as it would be though, I’d rather you buy me dinner first.” She adjusted herself, and was acutely aware of the hard bulge her sex was resting against. “Besides, I still think we have a few things to work through, before we get to the fun parts anyway. I mean, the constant threat of the Vex is thrilling, sure, but let’s get you back to the Farm first.”

“Once we get there, can we do it in a haystack? That seems fun,” Cayde chuckled, resting his hands on her hips. “After dinner, of course.”

Cass rolled her eyes and smiled down at him before leaning forward and giving him another quick kiss. “How about a bed first? After that, we can get weird.” She rolled off of him and laid down on the bedroll, her side pressed into his. Cayde reached down and intertwined his fingers with hers, making Cass smile. 

“I’m… still sorry though,” she whispered to him.

“It’s okay. It’s just part of living as long as I have,” Cayde admitted. “I can’t shy away from the fact that death seems like… a friend.

Cass turned to look at him, worry plastered onto her face. “Have you considered getting help?” she asked.

He scoffed. “The mighty Cayde-6 doesn’t ask for help.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit,” Cass said, her brows furrowing. “I just… need to know that I’m not gonna find you one day.”

Cayde sighed and closed his eyes. So many thoughts danced around his mind, each one stinging like an angry hornet in his helm, but his synthetic heart beat with a new intention - to live. For Cass. He would do it. He would face every day, no matter how bad, with her at his side. 

New purpose filled his soul, and Cayde looked over to her. “I’m gonna live for an eternity, if it’s with you,” he said. 

“Promise?” Cass asked him, her eyes soft and her voice on the verge of breaking.

“Promise.”

  
  



End file.
